Morien Castle

Three days later, Allen soon arrived at Morien Castle under the villagers' guidance. Morien Castle was much as he had imagined. Unlike Giles Castle, Morien was more of a castle in the traditional sense. Its walls were towering and built entirely of granite, giving an impression of massive solidity at a glance. He had long heard that Viscount Morien was a warmonger, but he had never expected him to be extravagant enough to build the entire wall out of granite, let alone pile it so high.

Allen looked toward the gate, where a full squad stood guard. Their fine armor reflected dazzling light in the sun. Morien certainly lived up to his reputation as a war fanatic. Even his gate guards had such luxurious equipment that they were almost on par with Allen.

When Allen and the villagers reached the gate, the squad's captain stopped them. "Halt. This is Morien. You must submit to an inspection." Allen was not surprised by his demand. After all, so many soldiers had not been stationed here just for show.

At that moment, a villager beside him stepped forward. "Gorrick, it's me, Frank. Don't you remember?" Gorrick recognized him then. "Oh, Frank. What brings you here? Didn't you just come to buy supplies a little while ago?"

Surprised that the villagers actually knew someone in Morien's army, Allen looked at Frank. Knowing what Allen wanted to ask, Frank explained, "He's the eldest son of Old Land from our village. He joined the army five or six years ago and has been at Morien Castle ever since. He's never come home." "This is Lord Allen, a very powerful mage and a great benefactor to our village. Without Lord Allen, I might not be standing here in front of you."

"What, a mage? Wait, a great benefactor? What happened to the village?" Gorrick was startled at first, then immediately caught on to what Frank had said. Since he had asked, Frank recounted everything in detail: how the bandits had invaded the village, how the noble who ruled their territory had abandoned them, and finally how Allen had saved the villagers.

After listening for a few minutes, Gorrick had pieced together the general picture and said, "All right, this isn't the place to talk. Come with me. Little Tikk, I have something to take care of. I'm leaving this to you." Gorrick called to the soldier beside him.

Then he led Allen and the others into town. "You probably don't have anywhere to stay yet. Stay at my place for now, Frank. And of course, honored mage, you're welcome too, if you don't mind the accommodations." Allen was not particular and followed him to Gorrick's home. It was a little small, but for an ordinary soldier, it was already very generous accommodation. It seemed Viscount Morien really did value his soldiers.

"Gorrick, I haven't asked yet. How did you become a squad leader and land a cushy job like guarding the gate?" Frank asked curiously. "Frank, you must have heard that Lord Morien is expanding his army. I was lucky enough to earn some merit while dealing with those gnolls, and with the opportunity the expansion offered, I moved up. Of course, it was all thanks to the lord's appreciation." Gorrick's voice was full of respect. It was clear that he was a staunch supporter of Viscount Morien.

Allen and the others followed Gorrick into the main room. Several pieces of brand-new wooden furniture stood inside, along with a low stone table. Directly opposite the entrance was a fireplace, which still held some spent charcoal and fresh firewood. Allen found a seat by the window and sat down, while the villagers settled down in twos and threes.

Frank spoke first. "Viscount Morien treats you so well! These stools and tables, and this house too. I'm starting to regret not coming to Morien Castle with you back then." Frank looked around the house enviously. Allen was also taking in his surroundings. Honestly, for an ordinary soldier to live in such a nice house really was generous treatment. Still curious, Allen asked him, "Does Viscount Morien treat everyone who joins his army like this?"

"How could he? I've served the viscount for nearly six years, and I earned this house with my military merits. I was planning to bring my father and mother here after a while. I never expected bandits to attack the village. But thank you for rescuing them, honored mage. I intend to move my parents here right away. It's far too dangerous out there."

Before hearing his words, Allen had not thought much of it, but now he began to worry about his own parents and Old Jack. He thought that once he became a professional, he would have to move his parents somewhere safe too.

Next, Allen asked Gorrick and the others for some detailed information about Morien Castle, then said goodbye and went to the market alone. Morien's market was nowhere near as large or crowded as Giles's. It could even be called utterly dismal. Apparently, this was because Viscount Morien had nearly doubled almost every tax. Naturally, he had not spared the most important ones, the commercial and agricultural taxes. As a result, practically no merchants were willing to come to Morien anymore.

To the merchants nearby, the name Morien was synonymous with brutality and bloodsucking. Allen did not oppose policies like Morien's, but the prerequisite was that Morien had to be prosperous enough to offer merchants the prospect of making money. Only profit could make these stingy merchants willingly hand over their wealth. Morien's only failing at present was that it had not shown the merchants sufficient profit. Merchants lived in pursuit of profit; that was an eternal truth.

Looking at the scattered vendors and the almost deserted streets, Allen lost interest in browsing the market almost instantly. Just as he was about to head back, a nearby vendor saw that Allen, his only customer, was about to leave and hurriedly caught hold of him. "Hey, adventurer, you ought to take a look at my stall. I might have something you need," the vendor said as he held Allen back.

Allen did not resist. "What do you have? Ordinary trinkets won't interest me." The vendor perked up, realizing he had a big customer, and said enthusiastically, "We have everything here, including healing potions for adventuring, maps, poisons, and even weapons."

But Allen had little interest in anything he mentioned and asked whether he had anything else. Without another word, the vendor led Allen straight to his stall and brought everything out at once.

Allen began examining the goods at the stall. The vendor really did have a bit of everything, but it was all cheap odds and ends. He did have the healing potions he had mentioned, but they were ordinary varieties with no magic, much like the ordinary wound medicines from Allen's previous life. Even after applying them, a wound would take several weeks to heal. Magical potions were different, however. Their healing power was generally more than ten times, or even dozens of times, that of ordinary medicines. There were even said to be potions that healed injuries instantly, but such things could only be found by chance.

Moreover, only alchemists could make magical potions, so there was no chance of finding such a thing here, not even the most ordinary magical potion. Allen gave the goods a casual look and found nothing that interested him, so he replenished his supplies of powders for camping and the like, then left.

After leaving the dismal market, Allen picked an inn at random. Since hardly any merchants came to Morien, the inns were all doing poorly, with most of their rooms empty. Allen rented a room, had dinner, and went to bed.

The next day, Allen began planning how to obtain a travel permit. He first asked around town about the application process. He discovered that he could obtain a permit in Morien too, but because the viscount was a warmonger, applications were scrutinized very strictly. Viscount Morien dreamed of starting a war. If Allen's undocumented status was discovered, heaven knew what the viscount might use that pretext to do. Most likely, he would treat Allen as a spy from a neighboring country and use it to provoke a war.

After thinking it over, Allen decided to ask Gorrick first and see whether he could get one. If that failed, he would bribe the inspector. Given the greed of nobles, this method had always been a reliable way to deal with them.

Allen went to Gorrick's home, only to discover that he was not there and had gone on guard duty. So he went to the gate, and sure enough, Gorrick was still there. Allen walked straight toward him. When Gorrick saw him, he immediately dropped what he was doing and ran over. Before Allen could speak, Gorrick said, "Honored mage, it's wonderful to see you here."

Allen looked at him in surprise and asked what was the matter. Gorrick answered at once, "You haven't heard yet, my lord? Yesterday, I reported your heroic rescue of our village to my superiors. Viscount Morien greatly admires you. If possible, he hopes to meet you sometime in the next few days."

Allen found this a little hard to believe, but after thinking it over carefully, he decided that Frank, that bigmouth, must have spread an embellished account of what had happened, making Gorrick and the viscount truly believe he was a powerful mage. Most likely, the viscount intended to recruit him. In truth, he was very reluctant to go, but refusing would offend the viscount and make obtaining a travel permit difficult.

Allen returned to the inn and, after much deliberation, went after all. Before going, he specifically asked Gorrick whether the viscount had any powerful people at his side. From Gorrick's answer, it seemed there were only some Warriors and no mages. That was reassuring. If all else failed, he could simply tell the viscount that he was only a mage apprentice. Presumably, the viscount would not make things too difficult for him.